Nigeria: INEC Has No Preferred Candidate Or Party For 2027 Elections – Chairman Amupitan

The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Joash Amupitan, says the commission has no preferred candidate or political party in the 2027 general elections.

Amupitan stated this on Friday during a visit by the pre-election fact-finding mission of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), led by former Vice-President of Sierra Leone, Victor Bockarie Foh, in Abuja.

He said INEC was conducting a readiness assessment tour of the country's geopolitical zones in preparation for the elections.

"INEC under my watch has no candidate and no political party," Amupitan said.

"Our sole allegiance is to the rule of law, the sovereign will of the Nigerian electorate, and the democratic progress of our nation."

The INEC chairman said the polls would be held across 8,809 registration areas and 774 LGAs in the country.

According to him, the country's voter register has surpassed 103 million, adding that INEC has completed nine of the 14 major statutory milestones in its revised timetable for the elections.

He said the commission has concluded three phases of the continuous voter registration exercise and completed the nationwide physical display of the preliminary voter register.

Amupitan said INEC would deploy the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) for fingerprint and facial biometric accreditation, alongside electronic result management systems. He added that the commission has introduced the eEC8A electronic verification platform to complement result management and verification through the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV).

He said INEC was working with relevant security agencies through the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES) to provide adequate election security.

On his part, the head of the ECOWAS mission said the visit was part of the regional body's efforts to assess electoral preparedness in member states approaching general elections.

He said the mission, which included the Head of the ECOWAS Electoral Assistance Division, Serigne Mamadou Ka, would assess the preparedness of electoral stakeholders and identify areas where the regional body could provide support.

He said the mission was in line with Article 31 of the ECOWAS Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance and Article 53 of the ECOWAS Conflict Prevention Framework.